There was a quartet of new releases that reached the top 30 on this week's sales chart, starting with the new number one film, Alice in Wonderland. The $1 billion hit sold 2.10 million units during its first week of release, generating sales of $40.13 million. It just missed the top ten for 2010 (one of the films ahead of it was actually released in 2009).
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New releases continue to struggle, but at least there is something of interest to report on top, as there are two releases that could legitimately the claim top spot. Dear John sold the most units, topping True Blood: Season Two 526,000 units to 480,000. On the other hand, True Blood generated more revenue $15.85 million to $9.46 million.
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According to Amazon.com, the best-selling release of the week is True Blood: Season Two on DVD while the Blu-ray is the second best selling release. I'm not saying it's a bad deal; in fact, it is a contender for Pick of the Week. However, for a TV on DVD to top the chart probably means sales for other titles will be quite weak. Other contenders for Pick of the Week include Leverage: Season Two and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. All three releases win that coveted title, but if I were forced to pick just one of them, I would go with True Blood: Season Two on Blu-ray. The flashbacks in the Picture-in-Picture track are just such a cool idea that it wins the tie-breaker.
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For the fourth weekend in a row, Alice in Wonderland remained in second place, this time adding $13.28 million on 3843 screens in 54 markets for a total of $630.30 million internationally and $961.15 million worldwide. Since last week it has crossed the $600 million milestone on the international scene, making it just the 13th film to do so. It is now the seventh highest grossing film of all time. The film's per screen average has declined enough that it will likely shed screens and markets rather quickly. That said, if the worst thing you can say about a movie's box office run is, "It might not make it to $1 billion!" then the film is a massive success.
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Date Night fell out of the top five, but added $7.47 million on 3120 screens in 48 markets for a total of $28.31 million. The film opened in first place in the U.K., but only made $1.97 million on 400 screens, which is about the same as $11 million here. That's not a great start and there's little hope that the film will match its domestic total overseas, but it is still a solid midlevel hit and should show a profit by the time it reaches the home market.
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There were more than a dozen foreign releases to reach the top 30 on the international chart, starting with Go Lala Go!. This Chinese film opened in first place in its native market and sixth place overall with $6.44 million on 655 screens.
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Shutter Island fell to sixth place with $6.64 million on 2870 screens in 39 markets for a total of $135.53 million internationally and $258.97 million worldwide. With a debut in Japan this weekend, it could climb back into the top five. Even if it doesn't, it still has to be considered a financial success.
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The Bounty Hunter slipped a spot to sixth place with $6.33 million on 1671 screens in 29 markets for a total of $17.04 million. It opened in a number of markets, mostly on the smaller side. Its largest new market was Mexico, where it debuted in fourth place with $656,000 on 300 screens. Meanwhile, it added $1.49 million on 393 screens during its second weekend in the U.K. for a two-week total of $5.86 million. It was right behind in Russia with $1.40 million on 445 screens over the weekend for a total of $5.52 million after two.
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The Round Up opened in sixth place with $6.32 million on 632 screens in 3 markets. Of that, $5.67 million was earned on 602 screens in France, which was easily enough for first place in that market.
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The Princess and the Frog remained in sixth place with $5.18 million on 3019 screens in 35 markets for a total of $149.82 million internationally and $253.53 million worldwide. This past week it opened in Japan, struggling into fifth place with $1.02 million on 363 screens. Even with that disappointing result, it should do well enough on the home market to show a profit relatively soon.
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Okay. Wow. All three wide releases beat expectations, some by massive margins, which helped this year shatter the previous Presidents' Day long weekend record. The three-day tally this year was $205 million, ahead of the previous record by more than $16 million. And, adding in Monday, the total box office over four days was $239 million, nearly $20 million more than the previous best.
(In both cases, the previous best was last year.)
This helped push the year-to-date box office to $1.48 billion, which is 1.6% higher than last year's pace.
However, ticket sales still lag behind, albeit by less than half a percent.
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Its Valentine's Day on Sunday and Presidents' Day on Monday, which means there are two reasons to be bullish when predicting the box office this weekend.
On the other hand, none of the new releases are earning overall positive reviews, which is a bad sign.
There is good news, as the same was true last year and two of the three new releases struggled at the box office.
This leaves 2010 an opportunity to end the slump, which has reached four weeks, and prevent admissions from slipping further below last year's pace.
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The The Red Riding Trilogy opened on top of the per theater chart with $14,526 in one theater, but that was all three shows for one ticket. On the one hand, the higher ticket price would help its average. On the other hand, the long running time is a large impediment. Ajami opened in second place with an average of $11,931 while Terribly Happy was just behind with $11,650. The overall box office leader, Dear John, was the final film to reach the $10,000 mark with an average of $10,262.
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In a shocking development, Avatar didn't win at the box office race over the weekend.
Instead, the romantic drama Dear John, based on the Nicholas Sparks novel, took top spot.
Unfortunately, while Dear John did much better than expected, the overall box office was still weak.
Total box office was $114 million, which was 9% lower than last weekend and 26% lower than the same weekend last year.
Year-to-date, 2010 has brought it $1.21 billion, which is 1.2% more than last year; however, for the first time admissions are down, by 0.8%.
This is a troubling sign.
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Avatar's run at the top of the chart came to an end over the weekend, according to studio estimates released on Sunday morning.
Its surprise vanquisher turned out to be Dear John, which ran up an impressive $32.4 million opening, a record for Superbowl weekend.
Avatar was down almost 25% to $23.6 million -- its weakest weekend yet, in spite of an impressive list of Oscar nominations earlier in the week.
But with $630 million in the bank now from North America alone, this can hardly be described a disappointment.
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It appears Avatar will walk away with yet another victory at the box office and it appears likely that it will set yet another record in the process. There are some factors that make the box office potential of all films a little more fluid this weekend. This includes the Super Bowl, which should draw away a lot of potential ticket buyers. Secondly, the Oscar nominations should help Avatar and a few other holdovers still playing in multiplexes. Depending on which factor is greater, we could keep pace with last year, or the slump could continue.
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2010 started in record-breaking fashion with the most lucrative January of all time, and only the second time that the box office reached $1 billion before the end of the month.
The first year to do that was 2009.
There were two problems preventing real celebration, however.
Firstly, roughly 30% of the total box office for the month came from one film, Avatar, which was a holdover.
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, most films that were released / expanded wide in January missed expectations.
Because of this, February starts on a bit of a down note.
Compared to last year, the top of the list is about as strong with a couple of films aiming for $100 million, while there are fewer films that seem like they will bomb at the box office.
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Weekly US Blu-ray Sales

Full financial estimates for this film, including domestic and international box office, video sales, video rentals, TV and ancillary revenue
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